MINNEAPOLIS — Federal immigration agents detained 12 people in a series of raids on Somali-owned shopfronts during the week, days after President Donald Trump inflamed tensions against Somali immigrants in Minnesota and referred to the Somali community as “garbage,” Dec. 6, 2025.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the sweep, which it calls Operation Metro Surge, targeted what it describes as “criminal illegal aliens.” Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said Friday that six of those arrested are Mexican nationals, five are from Somalia, and one is from El Salvador and that most have had past criminal charges or convictions, including assault, fraud and domestic violence. Civil rights groups and immigration lawyers say the operation has spread fear far beyond those 12 cases and is also ensnaring people with minor or old violations.
Many of the specifics that ICE published about the apprehensions closely match an Associated Press account of the operation: agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, fanned out across Somali-dominated neighbourhoods in south Minneapolis last week, and at least one person was picked up during a routine traffic stop.
Trump’s Somali remarks spark backlash.
The arrests came days after Trump said Somali immigrants “contribute nothing” and are a disaster for the communities that are taking them, a remark condemned by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as “putting people in danger even if he doesn’t realise it.” The president also took a separate shot at Mr Walz, mocking the governor with a slur referring to claims of welfare abuse by some Somali-run nonprofits, further stoking tensions at the State Capitol.
Trump’s language toward Somali Minnesotans — which was broken down in a Reuters look at his recent use of “garbage” as an insult — has been applauded by some supporters but condemned by state and local officials who say they fear it could lead to harassment and violence. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said city police will not cooperate with federal immigration raids and accused the administration of using Somali residents as scapegoats for larger political and economic issues.
Down on the streets of South Minneapolis, Somali American business owners said foot traffic has dropped precipitously, and many families have been keeping their children home from school. Community organisers are conducting “know your rights” trainings and setting up rapid-response networks to document ICE activity. Residents, in interviews summarised by Reuters reporting from Minneapolis, said they habitually carried passports but vowed not to cede public life or stop political organising.
Long background to Trump’s Somali remarks
For many Somali Minnesotans, this week’s Trump comments about Somalis and the ICE surge don’t so much appear as a surprise as yet another escalation in years of the same old same old. And at a 2016 campaign rally in Minneapolis, Trump said that the state had “suffered enough” by accepting Somali refugees and wondered if they were being properly vetted, according to Time’s reporting from a rally there.
After three years, during an early 2019 campaign event in the city, he once more singled out Somali refugees at a campaign rally and was condemned by Minnesota Democrats and Muslim leaders who called his comments “divisive” and “dangerous,” according to an Associated Press report on that flap. The latest surge of anti-Trump Somali comments — now coupled to a federal enforcement campaign— is viewed by community leaders as evidence that language from the campaign trail can swiftly seep into policy, with real-world implications.
Still, those leaders emphasise resilience. Representative Ilhan Omar, as well as local officials, have called on Somali Americans to document any abuses, stay involved in elections and keep building coalitions with other communities of colour and immigrant groups. At rallies and in community meetings, speakers echo a message directed both at Washington and at its own children: they are Minnesotans, not “garbage,” and they plan to stick around.
